Page 34 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Kase looked for something to help, but Stowe scavenged through his pack and drank one of his vials. After a few moments, his face returned to its normal color. “Hate these blasted death traps, but thanks.”
Kase’s heart surged. He’d done it. Without thinking about the ridiculousness of the gesture, Kase patted the hover dash. “Excellent work, my boy. Now let’s really fly.”
Chapter 6
HUMAN AGAIN
Hallie
HALLIE COULDN’T SEE.
Nausea bloomed in her stomach, waves of dizziness loosening her tentative grasp on the strange reality she’d fallen into.
What in the blazes…
She couldn’t finish the thought. Her brain wouldn’t let her. It ached, as did the rest of her body, but it was…dull. Not quite real. Like the pain belonged to a bystander, and she just happened to be close enough to feel some of it. Detached from her body, yet aware of everything.
Tingling mixed with the nausea. The riotous pinpricks were confined to her hands, like a hoard of bees peppering her with gentle stings. People spoke above her and around her, but she couldn’t tell if they were even speaking Common.They could’ve been conversing in the Queen’s Rubikan, and she wouldn’t even know.
Another wave of nausea hit, and she retched, her stomach twisting. Nothing came up. Pain spiked in her head. At least she could feel that.
More frantic words. She could understand the tone, if not the language.
Why couldn’t she see anything? She hadn’t passed out. The pain made her want to, but it vanished as soon as she stepped through the Passage into the awaiting dark. Had she done something wrong?
Was this what dying felt like? Storybooks had always told her there would be lights at the end of dark tunnels and portions of her life flashing before her eyes. There was no light here, no flashes, not even a dark tunnel. It was just…nothing.
She couldn’t grasp at the edges to pull her back. Her hands wouldn’t work. Nothing worked.
Maybe she could make her own flashes. If this was the end, she needed to think of something that would make her happy, that would make her last moments on this stars-forsaken planet worthwhile. Maybe her parents, or going to the theater in Kyvena. Maybe TheOdyssey. Maybe…maybe…
All she could think about was Kase and his laugh, his smirk when he’d said something particularly irritating only because he knew he could, and his steadying hands as he held her that last time.
Thelasttime.
Her eyes watered, tears leaking from beneath the lids like liquid fire.
“More. She needs more, my love,” King Filip said softly.
At least words were making sense again.
Someone’s cold fingers found her own. She whimpered. Each touch cut like knives.
“It’s best if you step aside,” King Filip said, a little further away—maybe speaking over his shoulder. “The Lady Fely has kept her alive and will continue to feed her the Soul she needs.”
She took a deep breath but cut it short when her lungs seared.
Hallie could barely concentrate on anything except for the tingling inside her body as it crawled up her arms. It made the rest of her feel hollow and burnt. A buzzing began in her ears.
The fingers left her hand. The knives stopped stabbing her, but everything still hurt.
More warmth bubbled up from where someone else had put a hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t painful. It was nice. A soothing sensation that her body drank in.
With each passing moment, the tingling receded. It was still there in the background, but it no longer dominated her thoughts. She became more and more aware of her surroundings, though she hadn’t opened her eyes. The dark fog lifted slightly, slowly dissipating. The warmth continued to flow into her, and her breaths deepened. She swallowed. She blinked.
The world was fuzzy and mostly dark, but she was no longer blind. Some sort of glowing orb floated above her. Whether it was a star or the sun or something of her own imagination, Hallie didn’t know. She blinked again, the edges of her vision clarifying.
Three people waited above her, their faces cast in half shadow, the only light in the room a floating ball of fire—small and round.
